mind blown from this next episode what what was
it like sitting down with Rabbi Manis Friedman Rabbi Manus Friedman if you don't know him he's
youtube's most popular rabbi he has over 187 000 subscribers some of his videos have millions of
views it was a phenomenal sit down we discussed what is it about money that makes the world go
round what advice would he give to someone who's extremely wealthy what advice would he give to
someone who has no money where do you go after you die i mean wow we're getting like uh spiritual
over here it was phenomenal it's crazy how spiritual money is but i was blown away without
exaggeration i could see this as being one of our most viewed videos and i'm excited to see what the
audience thinks can't wait to listen take a look being a jew awesome managing personal finances
not so awesome welcome to kosher money welcome Rabbi Manis Friedman this is a real
treat for us it's a little bit uh wild to see you in in the flesh because i've consumed so many of
your videos and you're usually behind the screen so the fact that you walked in here with
the glowing white beard it feels like uh almost uh out of uh out of real life but welcome
it's good to have you so if you type into google the world revolves around the
first result that comes up is money yep that's right there the world revolves around
money i don't know if necessarily it's true but what is it about money that
seemingly makes the world go round if you want to get to the heart of it what is the need for money only the
human being has this crazy lifestyle the animal goes outside looks
around to find something to eat no but we have to go through schooling training
apprenticeship and finally we got to get a job and then make some money and then you can sit down
to a meal and and not starve like why is that it seems cruel and unusual punishment so we have to think a little bit beyond and past just the money because it really is
a mystery why is it set up this way you know we have you would
think more noble things to do so our food should be available more easily
so that we can be free to do noble things and yet we have to spend most of our lives
just preparing for the job that will make us the money that will buy us the food that will
keep us from starving and that's it's crazy so the reason money makes the world go
round is because that's our survival but the question is why why such a crazy
system and as long as we're talking about it what is this craziness we work six
days a week so we can rest on one day that's top heavy and i was like we
should work one day so we can rest in six there's these movements across the
world now where fourth day yeah yeah because it should be that way ideally so here's the precautionary um warning
you can get a lot of comfort from money your life is easier more comfortable
broader have a bigger vision but it is not meant to produce happiness
and that's where the big mistake is yes money will give you comfort it will not give you
happiness because it won't give you satisfaction feels good to be able to make money you come
in with a big wad you know you feel great it's not happiness so if you depend on the money for
happiness you're headed for a depression and if not you then your kids say so what so
what so we have money so we're rich you know it doesn't make for a happiness life
but the reason we have to do all this and the reason we have such a
complicated path to a sandwich is because it's the only way that God
can get us to interact with each other to meet people we otherwise not meet to
get us to come out of our caves and feel mutually dependent on each other in other words
it creates a more human existence if you had your food outside you know just climb a tree and eat
we wouldn't be human the way we're meant to be so instead of thinking of how much money am i
making how much money who are you meeting who are you dealing with where is this taking you what are
you exposed to and what good can come from that the people you're dealing with your buyers your
sellers your customers your employer is there something that you're supposed to learn or give
or receive or some kind of human interaction that makes the world a better place if Adam and Eve
hadn't eaten the apple would this idea of money had existed and if not how else would we
have interacted so if you read if you read it superficially it sounds like the curse the curse
for eating from the tree of knowledge was that by the sweat of your brow you're going to make bread
that means go to work in simple language get a job so it sounds like a curse and it can be
a curse but really it's a hidden blessing it's like saying you can't
just be yourself anymore now you have to interact with other people
you'll give you'll take you'll receive you'll help each other in some way but no more
hermit kind of life in the garden of eden just picking things off a tree there's a verse in
Mishlei (The Book of Proverbs) "Tzedakah Tatzil Mimaves" that charity will save the donor or can
save the donor's life what is it about charity that is so powerful so much so that a dinner a
donor can be saved from potential harm or death with a little stretch of the imagination
giving charity means giving away your life i mean imagine you have only one dollar left and you give it away well what are you
giving away your life your survival so you in in return you deserve to receive
life so if you give life you get life if it's not always that dramatic whereas
your last dollar but every dollar could be your last dollar and what do you invest in
making this dollar pretty much your whole life you got to wake up you got to go you got to
work you got to train you got to look it's your whole life although we should make a distinction
there's a difference between existing and living huge difference existence means you take up
space literally that's the scientific definition how does this exist it takes up space what does it mean to take up space can't
put another microphone in the same spot so for human beings to exist means i take up space
which means you can't sit in my seat it's mine i was here first we can't share the same space
if you take it to an extreme Cain and Abel Kayin (Cain) and Hevel (Abel) could not
share the same space they had the whole world and they couldn't share it they must have had huge egos everything was huge back then so existence means to take up space which means
intolerant of anything invading your space in addition to that in order to exist
you have to have certain resources you need food you need drink you need shelter
you need warmth you need cooling you need all sorts of things just to survive just to exist so if you have everything you need
for your existence what have you accomplished nothing no one is invading your space and tomorrow
you can do it all over again you'll eat you'll drink so really it's kind of depressing
and that's what we call existential angst it it hurts to exist and that's why we're
always asking what is the purpose why am i here what's your problem you don't want to be here
i want to be here but i can't figure out why like what for so that i can not let
you into my house because it's my house and then give me food give me
drink give me this give me that it's embarrassing and a little depressing if i
take my existence more seriously i worry about it i stay up at night worrying about my space
and my i'm going to get seriously depressed but then there's also life life means
what effect does your existence make on the world around you your being here
your being your existence has an effect that's what justifies your existing so life means what are you contributing
so the fundamental difference is existence is demanding needy life is giving
needed before we get to making a living having money getting rich not getting rich one thing has
to be clear we can't function as needy creatures we have to see ourselves as needed
creatures changes everything that alone like the depression is gone who who needs us is it
and and i've heard talks from you in the past and i would like to get into that a little bit
but who needs us is it other humans that need us does God need us what what how do you look
at needed yes both some would say or push back and and say God doesn't need us god
has everything well let's put it this way God's plan needs us the plan can't
work without us god wants this world to become a godly place well the only
way that can happen is if we do it because if he does it then it's not this world
then then it's heaven he wants earth to become godly meaning by its own limited f you know
fallible clumsy way to somehow get to be godly so yeah it depends it depends on us completely
you touched on the idea of making a lot of money some people struggle to make ends
meet let's talk about those two extremes if there are those listening that
have come into a lot of money whether through inheritance or through their hard work or not
hard work they're sitting on a pile of cash what advice would you give to people in
the in that state yeah there are people who win the lottery and their life is ruined
[Music] it's it's a serious common event um being wealthy or being poor has only one significant consequence
you're gonna meet different people if you're rich you meet a certain kind of people
if you're poor you meet a different kind of people so your your wealth or your poverty
takes you where you can do the most good in god's plan so if you're poor it's
because you need to deal with people that that live in that circle in that universe
if you're rich it's only because you need to be affecting people who are in in that stratosphere
so always look beyond the dollar you know like follow the money [Music] no follow where the money
takes you notice what's going on in your life and you know you went to make money but you end
up accomplishing something much more significant you know somebody you're dealing with they don't
look so happy today and you ask them what's the matter and they've got a serious problem and
you suggest something you help them or you just encourage them and put them in a better frame
of mind you could have saved the life just there does that mean to say that those who
are poor and the people that meet that this is their lot in life and their for them to
strive to get out of that is not something that they should be focusing on meaning accept their
lot we talk about azure usher has because someone who's happy is someone who's um content or who's
rich someone who is content with their lot is that a life sentence almost is that saying
basically hey don't strive for something more because real richness is you have it it's
there already or no someone can actually do their efforts and and their hashtag list
to strive for something higher you always strive for higher
otherwise you'll never be rich so that statement from the sages who is
rich the one who is content with his lot never going to happen if you're
content you don't get rich you sit home among the rich people who is handling it and who is not handling it in other
words not who is rich who knows how to be rich so it's not bait and switch you want to know
who's rich somebody who doesn't care if he's rich no no don't do that to me should have
said who's happy a person who doesn't care okay but don't tell me he's rich and then
tell me he's happy with being poor [Music] not honest so we're talking about a person who
is rich seriously rich but there are those whose wealth make their life more livable and there
are those whose wealth make their life miserable so what it's saying is who is wealthy
in other words who is a healthy wealthy person who's handling their wealth well the
one who is content with their with their life not with their money if you're content with
your money you're not going to make any more that is not the nature of wealthy people so people a person gets rich they say
all of a sudden you win the lottery or you inherit a lot of money and all of a
sudden your wife is not good enough for you and your children are annoying and your car is too
old-fashioned and your house is too small and even even your congregation and your community is not
for you your whole life has to be exchanged why because you have money that money
is killing you it's destroying you so people who inherit a lot of money
they they need a little counseling some cautionary notes because it doesn't it doesn't the suddenness of it you know
they don't they don't have time to digest it and to work it out and
they don't grow into it which is also they didn't work for it that that
that is deadly undeserved unearned it's a gift but it can be a poison which is why an honest day's work is what brings
happiness not the money that comes from it so if you make more money than you feel you
deserve you're going to be thrilled but you're going to be miserable it doesn't give the
contentment that life is supposed to give so the great people in the past the people we
always looked up to as role models and so on any money that came to them undeserved
they gave it away immediately this is not really mine because i didn't earn it so if they find money give it away they want to live off what
they earned and deserved we had a guest here uh David Bashevkin
who spoke about "Gvir (wealth) Culture" where a lot of people in orthodox jewish
circles and it's not even just an orthodox jewry look up to the wealthy and their opinions
matter when it comes to the community you're rich they think you really know right is
is that is that it's a problem in the sense that we respect them for their wealth but then we also
suddenly value their opinion if they were to lose a lot of their wealth i don't know
if we would value their opinion um how do we how do we tackle that Gvir culture i think if we look more closely people are not
jealous of their money they're jealous of their confidence because rich people are confident come
across and they're jealous of their happiness if i could be as happy without the money i would
be perfectly okay with that if i could have the confidence of a rich person without being
rich i wouldn't mind so it's not the money that we're jealous of and that we're admiring
you admire somebody who speaks with confidence even even if they shouldn't because they
don't know what they're talking about but you know the same hap same thing happens
when you publish a book if you're an author then you are an expert on every subject that
has nothing to do with your book but oh he wrote a book well he knows everything which is so
again it's it's not the book it's not the money it's the confidence we can all
use a little more confidence well said let's go to the opposite side we
were talking about an abundance of wealth for those not making ends meet and watching
this video it's it's a real struggle right they they're receiving letters in the mail
from credit card companies they have debt what what do you tell someone like that who knocks on
your door not looking for a check but for advice that is dangerous the reason people are not making a living you
know can be so many different things and if it if you if you focus on the wrong thing you're
just going to make the person more miserable why can't you get a job let's not let's
not go there because you know who knows uh woody allen in the beginning of his career
had a a record an actual album of comedy and he has this routine about
how he was in a car accident and he had a near-death experience he was
dying and his life flashed before his eyes and he saw his father zeke coming in from the
fields with the cows and his sister annabelle was bringing the eggs in from the chicken coop
and wait wait i'm a jewish boy from brooklyn the wrong life is flashing before my
eyes and i got two minutes to live the wrong life cannot flash before your eyes it
does not happen so the poor man who looks at the rich man and says isn't that supposed to be my
life what am i doing here i'm supposed to be no your life is never wrong for
you because if it's your life well first of all it's the only one you have
so don't knock it but if it's your life live it it's yours it's not like my life took
a wrong turn and all of a sudden i'm not where i'm supposed to be you're exactly
where you're supposed to be so it's not like it's not like the rich man took your life away
stepped into your shoes and pushed you out no he's got his life you got yours again look
past the dollars what does your life consist of which people do you interact
with what issues do you handle they're different this is where you belong
if you were rich god wouldn't need you so it's not going to happen that way but you can
go from one to the other rich people become poor unfortunately and poor people become rich that means you fulfilled your
function and purpose in this field now you're being moved where you change careers
you change professions you meet different people so when god decides to move you he'll move you
but never jealous of someone else's life why the cost of jewish living and we ran through the
numbers is extremely high in comparison to the cost of an american non-jewish family
where if you live in the tri-state area in order to just make it without any lavish
vacations and things of that nature you need to be in the top three to five percent of income
earners in america assuming you're paying full tuition and um you're keeping kosher and the
cost of living is admittedly a lot higher how do how do we look at that and and for those that
and we always say it's a beautiful living but it's it can feel strenuous to some how should
people look at that specifically orthodox jews the biggest challenge the most noble challenge is the idea that he who gave
life will also give meals if he gives you life he's going to give
you what to eat relax you're not starving you're not dying you're not going anywhere
so the stress is a little self-inflicted it's really not in our control at
all and when you get right down to it being smart does not guarantee wealth i mean
look at who's real look at who's wealthy they didn't get there by being smart and look at
all the people who are poor who are brilliant and they tried it all they did exactly the same
thing the rich guy did and they did it better and nothing came from it and the other
guy didn't know what he was doing and everything turns up roses you know
so it's obviously out of our control on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) every
year god decides how much money you're going to make that year it's written in stone
there's nothing you can do to change it so worrying is certainly not going to help staying
up all night putting in extra hours it's not going to help it's not going to make a difference it's
it's deceiving i mean you you work on saturday you come home with a couple of thousand dollars of
profit what do you mean i didn't i made more money by working on shabbos (Shabbat/the Sabbath) that's
not called making money if next day you get sued for ten thousand dollars and there goes all your
money down the drain right so making money doesn't mean it's in the cash register the question
is where does it go from the cash register to doctors bill's god forbid to lawsuits to losses so in the end by the end of the year you will have
exactly the amount of money that was decreed on rosh hashanah so there are those that say
if that's the case where it's all decreed on the jewish new year why put in the hashtag
listen effort during the year very good question basically what we're saying is making a living
is a miracle it's a it's it's an act of god it's divine intervention but we're not supposed to rely on miracles
we have to live a earthy life and allow the miracles but we can't live on miracles if you're
not feeling well you have to go to a doctor to say god you know god will help me you know
the story with the boat and the car and the share the story let's say some guy was
caught in a flood and a truck came by picking up people and come we'll save you he
says oh no i'm a believer god will save me so the truck leaves and the water rises and a
boat comes by a canoe he said come on i'll save you don't worry about me god will say now he's up
on the roof of his house and uh a helicopter comes by ready to pick him up and he says don't worry
about it anyway he drowns so he comes to heaven and he says to god hey i trusted you i believed in
you why didn't you help me because i didn't help you i sent you a truck i sent you a boat i sent
you in other words god wants nature to function as nature not to be ignored but miracles come
into nature because nature alone can't exist so if you want to be richer there is
something you have to do open a bigger store you know you can't have a little
shop and say i want to make millions you got to create a vessel that can hold
or contain the blessing you're looking for so the guy says i'll open a little shop in the
corner i'll come in once a week a couple of hours and whatever god wants will happen
anyway yeah well you're not allowing it to happen because you're not you know like on Purim
(Jewish holiday/festival) if you extend your hand for charity there's a mitzvah (commandment) to
give call up guy doesn't stick his hand out you expect people to force money in into your pocket
so at the very least you got to put your hand out show that you're ready to receive so by opening
a bigger store you're saying i'm ready to take on bigger bigger responsibility bigger bigger
income but if i don't want that i just want to be just sit and wait for your uncle to die and
inherit his money so that's not the way god wants it to be the joke with the boat reminds me of the
fellow who's driving around looking for a parking spot and he says god please i need a parking
spot and he's circling 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 after 30 minutes he finds a parking space
says god no i found one forget it i'm good um so this idea that someone has to stretch
out their hand or create a bigger shop or a larger vessel at what point is his hand
stretched out enough at what point is his shop large enough that he's created a vessel
and and the crux of the question is how much effort is sufficient does one
need to be working late into the night in order to show god that he's making as
much effort as he possibly could thereby sacrificing other pieces in his life you know
the famous saying don't work harder work smarter work smarter putting in more time day and night
you know no that that's not making a bigger vessel that's just making a mess out of yourself you
open the larger store there is natural opportunity for the blessing step the bigger store reaches
its maximum right it's and it's not enough so open a bigger store but you don't spend more
hours trying to force more blessings into the store you have it has reached its capacity
in the small store you were making a 100 000 a year now you're making 500 000 a year but
that's all you're going to make in this store now you've got to open a chain of
stores if you want to be a millionaire but you can't just keep working on
that store day and night day and night so you just keep enlarging the vessel when you're
ready so that there can be a bigger blessing would it be wrong for someone to tell god that if
god was to make me more financially successful i'll be able to give more charity and do more
good things with this money as he's striving to create a larger vessel or that would be the
wrong way to look at it it's not a good idea to make deals with god because he'll always
outsmart you don't make deals but you should in your intention have in mind that the
more i have the more i share it's not a deal it's not you know i'm not making conditions with
god if you make me wealthy i'll give charity no i'm going to give whatever i have
i'm going to give 10 15 whatever because because that's what you're
supposed to do it's not it's not a not signing a contract or anything
right so don't make pledges we were told before you're rich don't make pledges i'm assuming given your role as a rabbi in a
community that couples and families do come to you with their financial related questions
what would you say is the common theme of those questions where they seek advice or
maybe have some sort of friction in their life hardly anybody asks me for financial advice
should they be no thank you very much but usually it's just the tip of the iceberg some friction between them that is blamed
on the money but it's never the money one thing we know for sure if a
guy is trying to make a living he has to he has to first make sure that his wife is happy because god is giving him money not only for
himself but for his wife and for his family well if your family is not with you and your
wife is not with you then you're not gonna get like a guy says i'm single i just barely make
enough to live on how am i going to get married so what you want god to give you enough money
for two when you're just you become two and god will give you money for two become ten god will
give you money for ten but what do you want money for ten before you even get married make any sense
you've hit on something there where there has been um discussion from families given the cost
of say private yeshiva school tuition that people are nervous to have more kids because
that will mean larger expenses you're saying that's a backwards way of thinking that
is that is defeatist that's intimidation it's giving up on life and it's giving up on life
in favor of a better existence never do that wow we have lists and lists of why i told the
fans that the few fans that we have less than a dozen about Rav Manus Friedman and they're
very familiar i think you now have over 187 000 subscribers on youtube not that you count um
what are what are some of the common themes of the more popular videos that you've released
that you've seen resonate with your audience interestingly the one the one talk that gets eight million hits wow is the
one about life after death everybody i don't know why what are
we all so afraid of dying what's going on here and it's been over
years not just corona and what you know everybody wants to know about that we'll link to it in our show notes to ensure
that people get to see it but what is it about life after death
is it uh what happens when you die where where do you go what do you what
do you do and you can't take your money with you either [Music] do you see that
as people get older they become wiser as it relates to what's important in life we
spoke about leaving a legacy and and being needed as people get older do they realize the
importance of that or the way they are hopefully not always unfortunately but i tell you this
corona [Music] it it has brought a lot of wisdom not only to old people to all people and this
is really i think relevant to this conversation do we want to go back to business as usual
does anybody want to go back to work no i hope not because the work environment has been so
toxic so inhumane we should never go back to that the greed the competition the stress everybody's
on anti-anti-stress anti-anxiety pills this is not a way to live this is
crazy don't want to go back to that so talk to anybody who runs a big company they have
a hundred employees just to pick a round number every one of those employees
comes in at nine stays till five it's a waste of time ask the head of that company
if all of these people came in at nine and left at three would you make any less money no what about
if they left at 12 would you make any less money probably not so what are
you keeping them there for what you're doing is you're
giving them too many hours for the amount of work they're going to do
so they get kind of sloppy you know what's a rush i got more hours i got more time i'll do it
soon i'll do it later i'll take a break i'll go if you had three hours of focused work you
would make as much money as you make now so what they should do is
put in the three hours take a lunch break and then get back together to
figure out ways of making the community better you've made your money now
let's think about everybody else you're capable people obviously
you're employed you're making you're creative you're intelligent so why not
spend a couple of hours trying to do something for your neighborhood for your community for your
congregation or for the world if you're that big people would come to work with
a whole different attitude it wouldn't be this greedy grabbing rat
race who needs that it's a phenomenal idea we had spoke about realistic ways on how we can
lower tuition costs and one of the ideas was a large accounting firm that has the resources to
help a school manage their finances or their back end where it wouldn't be much skin off of their
back but if they allocated x amount of hours employees to that cause they can help a communal
organization and uh it's within the theme of tapping into this are are you familiar with any
companies that are doing something like that or this one company that i spoke to is doing
it in what industry real estate real estate and has it impacted their
business in a negative way no and the employees appreciate and
they see the value in giving back yeah so going to work is not a
grind it's not a burden it's not suddenly it's a noble thing to do and it
does bring happiness which money can't i just heard this cute i don't know how
much time do we have a few more minutes there's this little uh scene where this guy
says to god i can't do this i can't i work i work i run i do i have no life i have no life i'm
down to 20 bucks i have no life give me a life so god says really no life give me the 20 bucks i'll give you a life the guy says okay well well if i give you the 20
bucks i won't have any money for gas for the car god says oh you have a car give me the twenty
dollars on the car and i'll give you a life i said oh wait if i don't have a car how am
i gonna get to work so god said oh you have a job so give me the job and the car and
the twenty dollars i'll give you a life it's like that joke about bring me bring the cat
into the house and bring the goat into the house and bring anyway so he says all right but if i
give you my job how am i going to pay the mortgage so god said oh you have a house give me the
house the job the car the 20 bucks i'll give you he said but if i give you the
house where's my family gonna live he's oh you have a family give me the family
give me the house give me the job give me the car under 20 bucks i'll give you a life he
says okay god says good now here's 20 bucks here's a car here's a job here's a
house and here's a family you got a life we sometimes think like you're chasing your
life and you're running in the wrong direction you have a life for which you're willing to go to work to support don't forget them and then complain you
have no life this is the challenge of today women are going to work not only because
they need another check but because women are tired of being a one parent family because
men are not part of the family they got careers so for a long time women put up with it thinking
yeah that's you know men supporting their families beautiful it turns out men aren't supporting
their families their career comes first in fact the family is like an annoyance their wife calls
the middle of the day what do you want i'm busy have no time for family i'm so
the wives realized they're alone and eventually they said look you're not
going to be part of the family neither am i i don't want to be a one-parent family so
i'm going to work too the problem is they both forgot that they have a life and they're so
focused on existing that it's really depressing we have now on the living lchaim network our
youtube channel tens of thousands of subscribers that are not even jewish that appreciate the
the wisdom that our guests have been sharing what and and it's been eye-opening to non-jews who
may not have had exposure to the world of judaism in trinidad and south africa and
australia maybe even in minnesota as well if you had a message for our non-jewish community
um not necessarily on behalf of the jewish people but something for them to know about judaism that
they have not been exposed to what what would that be whether it be a message or something to know
about orthodox jews and and judaism and torah now we're always very proud and keep
reminding the world we gave you monotheism that was 4 000 years ago what have we done
lately yeah that was great that was really really great there's hardly ever you know
there's hardly any idolatry going on you know monotheism is universally accepted
principle there's one god that's it okay you know we can debate you know
christianity and these muslims that have a little difference of opinion on that but but
the principle is there right there's one god what what more can we share
being a light to the nations what what are we offering ten commandments
they got it the bible they got it now what i think the message which everyone needs to hear this one god
that we believe in who created the whole world he has a big investment in his creation huge
investment because there was only him at the beginning and what was wrong with that why
wasn't he perfectly content there's just him no complaints no no demands no clutching nobody's
accusing him of being cruel why did he mess it up there must be a really strong driving
interest to make all this worthwhile for him and we've been ignoring that we're so focused on
what we need him to do for us we forget that his investment is the big one i mean if this world
disappears would i care it's not my problem it's his world he cares so again we've put ourselves in
such a needy position in our relationship with god that it has become a one-way relationship
which is no relationship at all when we serve god we're literally giving him
something that he can get only from us otherwise it's not a service you want god to help you
to save you to protect you to bless you to and that's called serving him it's so self-serving it's not it's not nice it's like a bad marriage so what we need to do is realize that we
are here on a mission to fulfill his plan what he needs from this world from us so we are needed not needy everything we do is part of his plan why do
i have to go to work i don't know that's how he set it up you want to call it a curse whatever but i didn't do this why do i even need to
eat three times a day i want to quit i can't why because it was never my idea in the
first place god needs me to consume food it was his design so instead of feeling so needy and
constantly making demands of god give me help me teach me show
me love me it's narcissistic we have to become a little more noble than that
a little bit you wake up in the morning what can i do for god's world what does god need from me
because i am needed i really have not many needs because i didn't ask for this so why
do i need to eat i didn't ask to be born it's an interesting thing that's
happening now it's like the cutting edge of people are no longer threatened by death the way they used to be like teenagers you say don't don't mess
with drugs dangerous they say yeah so like what well it might kill
you yeah what's your point in the olden days that enough said
you got to get up and plow the field back breaking work and you got to milk the cow 4
o'clock in the morning or you're going to die oh that's it right need what was what is the
expression need as the mother of all invention we were driven by need well something
happened in the last couple of years and people are saying you know what i don't care i
can't live my entire life so that i don't die it doesn't make sense so you better tell me
something more meaningful than oh you're gonna die where does that apathy come from it's not apathy
i i think we're getting closer to the truth because that has been the reality you must
live why because otherwise you'll die that is not a logical argument you have
to live so that you live and not die no so when we ask what is the purpose of life
we're not depressed we haven't given up on life we're just saying there's got to
be more to this than just not dying so all of a sudden there's a there's a
certain wisdom that is dawning on the world i am not needy because i don't need any of this
and you can't threaten me with death because why must i be alive why i like it i'm fine i'm not suicidal but why now we need to come up with some answers
and that's why people are turning to judaism judaism is the only source for information
that makes this world significant to god because most religions no this world is just a
pain you know get through it quickly with as few scars as possible and go to a better world uh
that doesn't help make life here but any better judaism is a living godliness not a heavenly one it doesn't dismiss
this world in favor of paradise and that's why jews don't really want to go to pa and we don't go
to heaven oh can't you just wait you can't wait to get to heaven oh i can wait i can wait as long as
i have no interest in going to heaven what's there in heaven when you die which you shouldn't
but when you do in heaven you are pampered you're retired you did your job you're
a good boy here enjoy we don't want we don't want to be retired we want to be productive we want to
be active we want to be contributing to god's plan so the message of judaism go back to
your question the message of judaism is don't go to heaven don't even think about
heaven bring god here don't go there and all the souls that are in heaven they're
miserable because they can't wait to come back here's where all the action is
and there is no better place is there a book that you have not written
that you recommend to people to read people are always looking to hear what inspires
and interests our guests is there a book whether related to finance or not that you
recommend to people a good book on life um towards a meaningful life oh it's called towards
a meaningful life okay we'll put that in the show notes people who do have follow-up questions for
you i'm assuming there will be many is there a good way to reach out to you a website an email
address if they google your name i'm sure they'll be able to find you the best way is to go to it's
good to know that org it's good to know that org do you receive quite a bit of uh communication
it's good to know yes it's good to know it's good to know.org wonderful well thank you so much for
joining us Rav Manus Friedman looking forward to having you back again soon and we appreciate your
time pleasure thank you thank you for watching another episode of kosher money talking about
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